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Cisco MDS Series vs Dell PowerStore comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco MDS Series
Ranking in Enterprise SAN
3rd
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Dell PowerStore
Ranking in Enterprise SAN
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
120
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (4th), NAS (1st), All-Flash Storage (1st), NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Enterprise SAN category, the mindshare of Cisco MDS Series is 6.6%, down from 25.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerStore is 33.5%, up from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise SAN
 

Featured Reviews

OğuzKalaycı - PeerSpot reviewer
Ensures consistent availability during updates and integrates seamlessly
I am using Cisco MDS in SAN environments for storage connections and server connections The product is very stable and performs well. During the update periods, the devices do not need to reload, ensuring constant availability. It is easy to set up and use. I do not have a central management…
Hassan_Zaki - PeerSpot reviewer
Integrated AI and clustering enhance storage operations effectively
I promote and recommend Dell PowerStore for all workloads to my clients and customers. Most of my customers have one appliance per site. Approximately 80% of my customers have Dell PowerStore implemented in their data centers. We always use CLS as another Dell solution for cybersecurity and data security. The CLS is integrated with the Data Domain, PowerProtect Data Domain, not with Dell PowerStore. Windows, Linux, and some customers use Red Hat or SUSE. We have many operating systems working with Dell PowerStore in the same environments and data centers. CloudIQ and Storage IQ are used by some customers, but Apex AIOps has not been widely adopted yet. Dell PowerStore has integration with VMware and Kubernetes. Most workloads work fine and have very good integration with Dell PowerStore, except for one or two specific workloads in the market. On a scale of one to ten, I rate Dell PowerStore a nine.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The product is very stable and performs well."
"The most valuable feature of the Cisco MDS Series is security."
"SAN switches in Cisco MDS Series are a valuable feature of the solution for our company."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the devices, databases, and zoning."
"The most valuable feature of the Cisco MDS Series is its reliability, support, and scalability."
"The features I found most valuable are the ease of deployment, it's easy to upgrade, easy to configure and easy to administer. There is no need for vendor professional services which saves project cost. The usage of WebUI for all primary features like hostname, IP address, SNMP traps, zone sets, addition and deletion of zone members or zone sets, backup of switch DB is very simple."
"The issues with these switches are extremely rare, and the whole product line is very predictable and stable."
"The product is easy to use."
"Migrations are very easy and fast."
"The most valuable aspects of Dell PowerStore are the promising roadmap, and the interesting features to come."
"PowerStore is easy to use, powerful, reliable, and highly customizable to customer's needs."
"PowerStore is robust compared to the previous models like Unity, and it provides excellent compression and deduplication."
"Currently, the features of replication and deduplication have been very important to us."
"The most important aspect of Dell PowerStore in comparison to any other platform is that it helps us save costs while giving more value per GB per dollar spent. It provides an industry-leading DRR ratio."
"The latency and the security are the most valuable features of Dell PowerStore."
"Dell PowerStore's compression and deduplication technologies are a big help for our organization. It's saving us a lot of storage compared to what we were previously using."
 

Cons

"I do not have a central management software to manage these products due to the licensing cost. It would be beneficial to have central management software for easier handling."
"The licensing model could be less complicated."
"It is quite a stable product. It should be shipped with the latest firmware to avoid download and upload schema at the beginning of the initial setup. There should also be the possibility of downgrading the firmware when required. WebUI needs DCNM instead a web-based GUI should be made available like Brocade san switch."
"The solution's management interface and GUI need improvement."
"The GUI client is Java-based and we know that Java is not secure, so everyone disables it."
"Cisco MDS Series can improve by having API functionality for automation and programming."
"Cisco MDS Series could improve by adding more gigahertz. However, they are doing this over time."
"The product is very expensive."
"One thing they need to work on is creating an app sync or the Metro Cluster functionality. Currently, it requires a different hop as we have to add multiple switches to build that functionality for replication from one data center to another."
"Dell PowerStore does not have features that specifically cater to the needs of our company or industry that are outstanding among others, but reliability is crucial, and ease of management is also important."
"The maintenance is a bit expensive. The service and support are there for three years, but after the third year, it is pretty pricey for renewal."
"Users can be enrolled in lifecycle extension with pro support. The pricing for that is too high for PowerStore."
"Horizontal scaling has room for improvement."
"There could be better reporting."
"While using Dell PowerStore's interface in our organization, we sometimes miss out on some information."
"As a partner, I'd like to be added to each customer's CloudIQ to take a look."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's perpetual licensing and maintenance is a recurrent cost."
"Pricing cannot be considered an advantageous trait of the solution since it is expensive. I rate the solution's pricing a three out of ten."
"The price of the Cisco MDS Series is high."
"Dell PowerStore has been priced aggressively, especially when compared to other NVMe storage options. It is likely one of the most cost-effective options for organizations seeking a pure NVMe play in terms of pricing."
"We only have a single machine and we are currently using half of the hard disk slots. We have asked for an upgrade for the rest of the hard disks but, from my point of view, it costs too much. We have 12 to 15 hard disks inside and if we try to upgrade only the hard disks, it costs the same as the complete system. This is something I don't understand."
"Licensing is very simple. Everything is included in the basic license. There are no concerns about having to pay to add a feature. Everything is there."
"Pricing depends on the model and negotiation. Sometimes we manage to get good discounts, sometimes not."
"The price of Dell PowerStore could improve. The price should be managed more compared to Huawei Dorado or IBM All-Flash series."
"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."
"There's still a cap on the upgrade path, where you can consume all the engines within the frame before you have to go to another frame... Normally, we exceed the IOPS on the frames before we can ever exhaust the storage, so anything they can do to help us avoid stranded storage capacity, capacity that we couldn't get to, would be beneficial."
"In terms of licensing, my organization has Dell Technologies End User License Agreement (EULA), but I don't know exactly how it works, though it is a big bundle of licenses for Dell Data Domain, Dell EMC Unity XT, Dell PowerStore, Dell ECS, and all such kinds of storage arrays."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
23%
Government
12%
Educational Organization
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco MDS Series?
The pricing could be improved as the solution is very expensive. I am on a yearly payment basis.
What needs improvement with Cisco MDS Series?
I do not have a central management software to manage these products due to the licensing cost. It would be beneficial to have central management software for easier handling.
What do you think about Dell EMC PowerStore? Is it actually a new product?
PowerStore is flexible, scalable, simple, and performant with market-leading economics for a wide range of legacy and next-gen apps. It is only Flash and can support many workloads from today's app...
How does Dell's EMC PowerStore compare with its EMC Unity XT?
Dell EMC PowerStore is a unified storage platform that has the added benefit of being scalable. The automated management of resources feature provides a more simple administration. I found the flex...
What's the difference between DELL EMC Powerstore and Powermax NVMe?
Dell PowerStore is an all-solid-state midrange storage system. It has many internal elements taken from other Dell offerings and integrated into the PowerStoreOS. The installation and setup have a ...
 

Also Known As

Cisco MDS 9100, Cisco MDS 9222i, Cisco MDS 9700
PowerStore
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco MDS Series vs. Dell PowerStore and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
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